Indexing a table is something that is done on the server side as an administrator. Are you able to administer this database? What database type is this? I don't know of any way to index a table as a client.

Concerning your post: if you are posting code, be sure to UseCodeTags (that's a link).

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syahida zainal

Greenhorn

Posts: 3

posted 2 weeks ago

Hi Knute, i didnt know that I have to use Code Tags.

Yes, Im able to administer the database. Im using MySQL Server for the database. Can you please explain more about indexing table on the server side as an administer. Thank you.

That's a complicated query. The right way to improve the performance is to look at your database. Can you run an "explain" query on it. This will tell you what table is being scanned in full and what indexes are or aren't being used.

You add an index to a table like any other statement. If you index certain columns it will update the index everytime you make changes to the table. Indexing makes finding a value faster because the db knows where to start looking instead of looking through all of the rows.

Indexes don't even exist in the theoretical SQL defined by Codd and Date. But try to get along without them in real life!

An index, conceptually, is simply a file containing pairs of keys and record (row) pointers. Since the index "file" is smaller than the actual target table and is organized for fast searching (often using a b-tree or hash), you can find the actual record much more quickly than if you simply had to grind through the target table row by row looking for a match.

You can define indexes as either unique or non-unique. for example, you could have employee records containing their department ID and make an index on department ID, and that would presumably be a non-unique key. On the other hand, the employee ID would almost certainly be unique. You can also create indexes based on computed values or concatenations of multiple field values, but that's getting a bit complex for this discussion.

A Primary Key is an index with unique values. Internally, the DBMS may even optimize table organization based on the knowledge of the primary key definition, but the important thing to the outside world is that since it's a unique-values index, any attempt to add a new record with the same key value as an existing record will fail.

Indexes are defined via DDL, not SQL, and thus no special coding to the SQL is needed to use them. The only difference between a "WHERE" clause component referencing an index and one referencing a non-index value is performance.

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syahida zainal

Greenhorn

Posts: 3

posted 2 weeks ago

Thank you eveeryone that help in explaining about index. I now understand and get the idea how to use it.